


Lunchtime Rituals

by sleepybeaute



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Beginnings, F/M, Friendship, Friendship/Love, One Shot, Original Character(s), Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-20
Updated: 2017-03-20
Packaged: 2018-10-08 07:14:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10381389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sleepybeaute/pseuds/sleepybeaute
Summary: Helena Trevelyan begins a lunchtime ritual with Varric whilst at Haven. Warm food, conversation between growing friends, and the occasional watching and commenting on Commander Cullen of the Inquisition all round out the Inquisitor's get together for lunch.





	

**Author's Note:**

> First fic I've posted on here - wrote this about a year ago and felt like putting it up now, so here ya go. This is one of my Inquisitors - Helena. Feedback is much appreciated - thanks!

The routine had been occurring for about a month’s time now – Varric and Helena would meet at half past eleven by the smithy just past the main gate of Haven, wander over to the clearing overlooking the small lake, and take up spots on a fallen tree while they ate and conversed with one another. It was a moment of relaxation each day for Helena, and an opportunity to enjoy a warm meal and not have to think too much of the overwhelming responsibility that was brought on with being the supposed Herald of Andraste. She was simply able to spend some much-needed time with a friend and just step away from it all.

It was early on after the official reformation of the Inquisition in which Helena was still acclimating to her role in all of the current events. She must have appeared as a lost and lonely child to Varric, for it was soon enough that he caught her just as she was about to head off for a run.

“Have you eaten yet today?” The dwarf had had to crane his neck up to the heavens to speak with her, considering her towering stature was above normal for a woman – she was just as tall, if not taller, than many of the men roaming Haven. Helena had needed a moment to register the question, for she was used to all talk being related to the Inquisition – everybody still seemed to be speaking to her in a formal manner as the Herald, rather than just Helena. Blinking several times down at him, she had to briefly think back to the morning’s events – all of them were beginning to blend together.

“No, I haven’t. There was a meeting this morning with my advisors that I had to attend,” Helena had explained, her voice cautious.

“Then let’s get some lunch, shall we?” A grin had spread across his face while he shook his head at her look of confusion, his eyes twinkling faintly like embers. Helena continued to stand still, eyeing him. She cocked her head, still waiting for more of an explanation before nodding towards the main gate.

“I was planning on going for a run, though...” Varric’s grin expanded even more, a chuckle now escaping.

“There’ll be plenty of occasions for you to run, Herald. Trust me,” Varric joked, turning to leave and shooting a glance over his shoulder towards her. It was only but a few seconds before Helena slowly followed him. He had then proceeded to tell her to wait out by the smithy, and that he would be right there. Doing as he said, she had taken up a slow impatient pace, huffing as she internally asked herself why she was bothering to hang around.

He had finally nonchalantly shown up with two bowls of soup and some bread, silently leading them to the snowy clearing. Varric surprised her by keeping rather quiet as they ate and awkwardness creeped across her. He asked a few simple questions about her home as they finished up, and soon enough they parted ways. Two days later he offered to have lunch with her again. From then on it became a regular part of her day.

Varric was quite easy to talk to, and their conversations spanned across a wide variety of topics. He tended to ask more questions early on, but soon enough Helena was opening up and asking her own lot of questions with budding intrigue and curiosity for the story-teller. He seemed in shock when she admitted she had never read any of his books, but he continued to share stories with her, making her promise that she would pick up one of his books and read it – with a cheeky grin and wink of an eye, he even offered to sign it for her. She chatted freely about her home in Ostwick, her family, the life she had led before she had gone to the Temple of Sacred Ashes. There was an ease with which they spoke and through their comfortable friendship Helena began to feel more inclined in reaching out to the others within her inner circle, along with her advisors.

The initial tension between Cassandra and Helena had begun to fade, and Helena found herself seeking the woman out for guidance, which allowed a friendship to bloom. It was clear that they had both been quite on edge during their first meeting, but now they held similar ideas as to what needed to be done, and they both wanted what was best for Thedas.

Solas was pleasantly surprised when Helena began coming to him more and more with questions about what he knew in regards to the Fade and demons. He was more than happy and even rather excited to share his knowledge with her – they would discuss the Fade and his visits into it oftentimes in the evening, and she was very thankful to him every time to hear more and more. They held some disagreeing viewpoints, but each took the time to recognize where the other one was coming from.

Helena did her best to make time for her advisors, finding it easier to engage with Josephine than Leliana. There was a quick connection that Helena could find when conversing with Josephine, since they both came from noble families. She was able to offer some information about her family and if and how they might support the Inquisition, which seemed to lift Josephine’s spirits. When it came to the Inquisition’s spymaster, Helena found that they had clashing ideas about certain things. They got along well enough, overall, however.

Of all her advisors though, it was the commander which she spent the least amount of time and effort getting to know. He was pleasant enough in the meetings with the war council, and he offered sound advice, but with all that was on his plate - training the recruits, the amount of paperwork that came with the establishment of the Inquisition, the many meetings - Helena hadn’t found the appropriate time to be able to converse with him as she would have liked to. During one of the regular lunch time meet ups between her and Varric, as they watched the recruits training below, Helena had expressed her interest in training, considering how minimal it had been when she was back home in Ostwick. Varric had mentioned, between bites of his sandwich, that she should go speak with the commander. She had quickly pushed that piece of advice away though - she wouldn’t want to bother him, given to how busy he always appeared.

The extent of her interaction with Commander Cullen had continued to be very little, until one mid-morning when Varric nodded his head towards the soldiers, his hands cupping his bowl of soup, draining the warmth from it to keep the chill at bay.

“I swear, Curly’s always forgetting to eat. He’s going to fall over one of these days from lack of food, and I’m not going to be able to catch him. I could try, but he’d crush me.”

Helena had been watching two recruits practicing their footwork, but then turned her attention to the Commander. He seemed fine enough to her, not necessarily one who appeared to be starving or ready to faint. He had slowly but deliberately been making his way through the soldiers, his attention concentrated on their stances, their feet, and the way they were holding their weapons. He saw it all in a matter of seconds and was able to correct anything he noted to be wrong. Occasionally he would back away from everyone and simply take it all in, running his gloved hand through his hair which ultimately caused a few of the curls to escape and fall gracefully across his forehead. His stance was powerful and he carried an aura of strength around him, which mildly intimated Helena.

The commander must have sensed their eyes on him, for his gaze had turned towards them up on the clearing, making eye contact with Helena first, holding it for several beats and then rushing to turn his gaze to the dwarf. Varric had given a mock salute, while Helena offered a soft smile to the man. He had hurriedly given them a nod in return before returning his gaze to his soldiers. He had then proceeded to give a quick cough, lifting his hand to cover it, chancing a look at Varric and Helena, and then hurrying to the other side of the group. Helena had watched him rush away, her brows raised as she then heard a few muffled chuckles from Varric who sat next to her. They had returned to their food and conversation.

When the sun clearly marked that it was noon, Varric had set off for the tavern to do some people watching. He waved as he hobbled off back towards the gate. Helena continued to sit for a time, her gaze off towards the lake. The tear in the sky had become a normal part of the expanse above her, and she paid it no mind. Her thoughts continued to retreat back to what Varric had mentioned about the commander. She turned her attention back to her own bowl of soup, of which she had only eaten less than half – seemed awful to throw it away, ultimately wasting it. Her grey eyes had turned up as she watched the soldiers again. She slowly pushed herself up off the fallen tree that they had been sitting on, and made her way down towards the practice area.

She had silently made her way around the soldiers, not wanting to interrupt them, and found the commander watching a group, his back turned to her. Helena felt her pulse oddly quicken as she came up to him and cleared her throat. He spun around, clearly taken aback that she was suddenly right there. They stared at one another for a bit before both of them began to speak.

“Herald, hello, I, hello, um – ”

“Commander, I thought you might – ”

Helena chuckled a bit. Cullen smiled timidly as he looked down at the ground. There was a pause, and he held his hand out for her to continue. Helena was now the one to look down, staring at the bowl of soup in her hands. She held it out a bit, turning her attention back to him.

“Varric said you forget to eat sometimes. I brought you the rest of my soup,” she stated matter-of-factly. His mouth opened slightly as his eyes looked between the bowl and her. Helena continued, raising a brow, “I figured that you could stand to have it, rather than me tossing it out.” She waited patiently as he tilted his head now, his mouth still open as he searched for what to say. He finally reached out and took the bowl, his grin a bit wider.

“I appreciate it, Lady Trevelyan. It would be a waste, yes, and I suppose that Varric might be right about…a bit of that, well, I mean,” Cullen’s voice trailed off as he glanced back to Helena. She nodded, offering a tiny hint of a smile before she began to turn away and leave, calling back once more.

“We can’t have our commander fainting now, can we?” Her grin broke into a larger smile before she completely turned away and strode back toward the gate. The commander gave a hesitant wave, his voice and thoughts faraway as he watched her tall figure depart.

“No, we can’t, I guess…”

 

It became another part of Helena’s lunchtime routine. Meet Varric at half-past eleven by the smithy, settle on the fallen tree in the clearing, eat whilst chatting, say goodbye to Varric at noon, walk over to Commander Cullen, offer him any leftover food, have a brief conversation and say goodbye and part. Helena had noted how the day after she offered food for the first time that he seemed to be glancing over at them during their lunch quite a lot. For the first few times when she would bring food down to him, he seemed quite shy and unsure what to say. But after about a week of the slight change to her routine, their hellos and conversations became more fluid and comfortable, and he was thanking her countless of times for bringing him food. She realized that Varric had been quite right – Cullen didn’t necessarily scarf down his food, but she could tell that he was rather hungry.

Helena was upset with herself that she had not initiated conversation with the commander sooner – he was a very interesting person who seemed to have experienced much personal growth in his recent years. His insight into the training of the soldiers was fascinating to listen to, and he clearly had passion for what the Inquisition was doing. She always disliked having to say goodbye and let him return back to his duties as commander, but they understood the part that they both played in this, and that, unfortunately, there were larger responsibilities.

She found that even during her first several ventures out to the Hinterlands, she was concerned if the commander had had a meal that day. She debated about asking Josephine to make sure that Cullen ate every day while she was away, throwing the idea back and forth until she finally made mention of it to the ambassador, who was happy to assist.

When Helena would return from slaying demons, closing rifts, running from bears and the like, it was always a comfort to return to her lunchtime routine with Varric and Cullen. It had become well-known to all that the Herald would be otherwise engaged from half past eleven until a quarter past noon.

 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 

For a month there had been no problems with the lunchtime routine that Helena had. Meetings oftentimes occurred in the mornings or in the afternoons, sometimes even both, depending. Varric was always on time, and if anybody was running late, it was usually Helena, but only by a few minutes. There was never a need to confirm whether or not she and Varric would be meeting up for lunch.

It wasn’t until a month after the tradition began that Varric did not show up one day. Helena could have sworn she had just seen the dwarf roaming around the tavern. He was never late, and there had never been any conversation about not being able to attend that day. Helena gave it about ten minutes before she returned back into the main area of Haven, doing a quick walk around to search for him. Nobody seemed to have an answer as to where he was when she asked, so, feeling slightly dejected, but overall very confused, she returned through the main gate.

She was rather thrown off, given that this was a first – she had even been the one to grab some food for the two of them, instead of it usually being Varric who did so. Looking around, she mumbled a few curses under her breath. Her eyes traveled towards the soldiers who were continuously training, especially as the number of recruits grew. Without a second thought, Helena made her way over to the fighting, her eyes darting about, searching for Cullen. Upon spotting him, a smile brightened across her face. As he noticed her approaching, he too broke out into a smile.

“I was wondering what happened to you. I didn’t see Varric or yourself in your usual spots,” Cullen commented casually, nodding over towards the empty clearing. He graciously took the wrapped food, beginning to eat.

“Varric seems to have disappeared. He doesn’t even owe me any money, so I don’t know why he’s gone missing all of a sudden,” Helena teased, giving a casual shrug of her shoulders as she watched the practicing soldiers. They easily and quickly fell into their normal habit. Glancing back towards him, she continued, “I suppose…well, would you like to join me for lunch then, Commander? Unless you’re desperately needed here, of course.” He watched her for a brief moment before sweeping his gaze across his recruits. He bit his bottom lip slightly before turning back to her, eyebrows raised slightly.

“Lead the way, Herald.”

They made their way over to the clearing, Helena appearing more comfortable with claiming her usual spot than Cullen was with even sitting down. He took a moment before finally sitting next to her, the two of them quiet as they ate, Helena glancing over towards the smithy and the work that was going on there while Cullen continued to watch his men. They were quiet for a bit before breaking into conversation, the natural flow of their growing comfort with one another returning easily enough. The conversation turned back towards Varric.

“I feel quite odd taking Varric’s normal position,” Cullen admitted, a closed smile on his face as his eyes peeked towards Helena. She gave a short laugh, reaching down and picking up a small twig.

“He would most likely only pretend to be upset. But apparently it doesn’t matter, since he has left me for another woman,” she teased, absentmindedly twirling the twig in her hands.

“I don’t see how any man could ever think to leave you,” his voice was soft, and his eyes were focused on her hands. She had ceased twirling the stick, and he suddenly realized what he had said. Pink hues blossomed across his cheeks as he sat up straighter, quickly attempting to backtrack, “I mean, I don’t mean to say that – that you were, that you’ve had to deal with that, or will have to, or that you’d ever have to deal with that to begin with – ” Helena watched him silently, her neutral expression present. Their eyes met and he briefly wondered if he should just stand up and leave. Just as he was greatly thinking about doing so, her face softened and she let out a light chuckle, shaking her head – Cullen relaxed again.

“Thank you. We should remember that Varric is not just any man though,” her eyes glinted – Cullen was glad that she felt she could show her more humorous side to him – and she sighed softly. “Well, I should let you get back to your men. I don’t want to steal their commander away from them too long. Thank you for joining me, Cullen.” She stood up, Cullen hurrying to stand as well, their eyes meeting due to them being just about the same height. Although his heart was still pounding, he easily flashed a small grin.

“It was a pleasure to join you, Lady Trevelyan,” Cullen reached up to rub the back of his neck, forcing himself to stop staring at the Herald. She was frowning when he glanced back to her, but she let it wash away and instead gave him one of her soft smiles.

“You can call me Helena, Cullen,” she offered, the corners of her lips turning up a bit more.

“Oh, yes,” he returned, nodding his head as he placed his hands behind his back. Her brows raised ever so slightly as she waited. She finally nodded as well, sighing softly. She flashed him one final small grin before departing. It wasn’t until she was several yards away that Cullen smiled, turning to return back to the men. He offered himself the chance to say the name and feel it on his lips.  
“Helena…”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading - hope you enjoyed it. Feedback is much appreciated!  
> Feel free to check me out on Tumblr (sofawxx) & Twitter (@sleepybeaute)


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